Ok guys I am ready to start wiring my layout permanantly. I want to make sure I have a steady flow of power completly around my layout. I have been told to go under the table and run a wire completely around the layout directly under the track. At approxmately every two feet or so, run a spliced wire from the main wire and solder it to the track to guarentee an even flow of power completely around your track. Is this correct? If it is, what gauge wire should I use for the main wire and what gauge wire for the splices? I am dealing with O gauge and gargraves three rail track.
12 gauge for main bus and 18 gauge for feeders should work just fine.
Thats a lot mgruber your info is greatly appreaciated
Maybe there is a difference with O scale, but isn’t every 2 feet for track feeders a little too much? I dunno, I have HO but I placed feeders no closer than 3 feet and sometimes 6. It’s not the most fun job in model railroading to be under the benches trying to solder wire… sometimes over your head… at best even with it. Why not try wider spacing and see how it goes. You can always come back and add more.
Just a thought.
JaRRell
Most of the 3 railers I know put in a feeder about every 8-10 ft or so. You don’t need as many as in the smaller gauges because 1) the track pins are larger and fit tighter 2) the rail is made from steel which is a better conductor than nickel silver. If you do have voltage drops at this spacing then you can add intermediate drops later.
With GarGraves track (which is hollow with a split base) you can insert the wire into the slot in the rail base instead of soldering. Easiest way to do this is to solder the wire to a spade lug or flat piece of metal similar in size, and then insert this in the rail base. Using lugs into the rail base makes it much easier to take up or reuse your track.
Remember to provide feeders for all 3 rails, with the outer rails tied to the same bus wire.
my thoughts, your choices
Fred W
Hey JaRRell,
You are so right…soldering under the table is NO fun… therefore I recommend tap-ins or “suitcase” style connectors. Much easier. Some worry they may fail, but I have had NONE fail yet. Also, if you wire every 3-4 feet you have redundancy in case they DO fail… just my 2 cents. Oh, and if you REALLY don’t like soldering on the floor (that stuff HURTS!), I recommend edge connectors for your tortises…
Brian